“Cum essem in Constantie…”: Raffaele Fulgosio and the Council of Constance 1414-1415

In Cum essem in Constantie, Martin John Cable presents a study of the Padua university jurist Raffaele Fulgosio (Fulgosius) (1367-1427) and his work as an advocate at the Council of Constance in 1414-15.
Through the use of archival material and evidence drawn from Fulgosio’s works, the book reveals a vivid picture both of teaching practice at a medieval university and the life and output of a working lawyer in early fifteenth-century Italy.
The book recreates much of Fulgosio’s workload at Constance and his involvement there in debates about representation, imperial and papal power and the Donation of Constantine.

Biographical note

Martin John Cable, Ph.D. (2001), London School of Economics and Political Science, is an independent scholar. He has published several studies on the legal questions raised by the Great Schism and particularly concerning the concepts of ‘Real and Personal Obedience’.

Readership

All interested in the history of the Council of Constance, teaching practice in law at the University of Padua in the fifteenth century and ecclesiastical and legal history.

Reviews

"Martin Cable’s book “Cum essem in Constantie . . .”: Raffaele Fulgosio and the Council of Constance is an impressive work in medieval intellectual history. For its investigation into the life and teaching of Fulgosio, a law professor and later advocate at the Council of Con stance, the book utilizes the still underused genre of legal commentaries. It is indeed Fulgosio’s annotated anecdotes and references to particular law cases that he used during his lectures that loosely hold together the story Martin Cable unfolds... It should be of interest to a rather wide range of scholars who are concerned with late medieval university history, legal thought, and the history of the Council of Constance specifically or the conciliar movement more generally."
Bettina Koch, Speculum 92.4 (2017).

Table of contents

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xii
Introduction 1
1 Texts and Contexts 3
2 Historical Overview: The Schism until the Council of Constance 6
3 Biography: Payoffs and Pitfalls 11
1 Podcasts from the Past 19
1.a The Print Tradition of the Commentaries 20
1.b Manuscript Sources for the Commentaries 25
1.c Dating the Sources of the Printed Commentaries 29
2.a Fulgosio’s Life and Career 47
2.b Fulgosio’s Education 52
2.c From Pavia to Padua 61
2.d Fulgosio’s Married Life 76
2 Fulgosio’s Teaching Style and Professional Work 87
1.a Teacher and Lecturer 87
1.b Extraordinary and Ordinary Lectures 106
2.a Working Lawyer 109
2.b Due Process: Abuses and Exceptions 115
2.c Legal Fictions and the Imperial Prerogative 119
2.d Successive Procedural Contributions 134
2.e Diplomatic Activity and Advice: The Treaty of 1412/1413 137
2.f Other Legal and Professional Work 144
3 Fulgosio’s Arrival at the General Council 147
1 Conciliar Advocate 151
2 The Marche Case and the Question of Obedience 155
4 The Arrival of the Emperor Sigismund at Constance, Part One:
Fulgosio and the Christmas Day Controversy of 1414 162
1 Status and Rank: The Besancon Case 164
2.a A New Source for Sigismund’s Arrival at Constance 166
2.b Fulgosio’s Recollection of Sigismund’s Arrival 167
2.c Fulgosio’s Later Recollection of Sigismund’s Arrival 173
2.d Fulgosio’s Opponent in the Debate 177
2.e Dating the Debate 179
3 Aragon and the Empire 180
5 Fulgosio and the Question of Suffrage and Representation at the
Council of Constance 185
1.a Voting by Nation at Constance 185
1.b Fulgosio and the Debate on Suffrage 190
1.c Fulgosio’s Consilium on Voting by Proxy 194
1.d Fulgosio’s Private View 197
1.e Dating Fulgosio’s Contribution 198
2 Sub-Sub-Delegation 201
6 Fulgosio, the Case of the Anonymous Archbishop and the Legal
Legacy of the Great Schism at Constance 207
1.a Identifying the Litigants 208
1.b Fulgosio’s Consilium 212
2.a The Impact of Pisa and the Great Schism 216
2.b Guaranteeing Property Rights in the Settlement of the
Schism 220
2.c Dating Fulgosio’s Contribution 223
7 Fulgosio and the Defence of Pope John XXIII at Constance 226
1 Papal Simony 226
2 Fulgosio’s Defence of John XXIII 228
8 Sigismund’s Arrival at Constance, Part Two: Fulgosio and the
Donation of Constantine 236
1.a Re-Examining Fulgosio’s Comments on the Donation 238
1.b Fulgosio’s Intervention 245
1.c Conclusion 250
9 Return from Constance to Padua 254
10 Fulgosio and Constance after Constance 268
1.a The Jean Petit Tyrannicide Case 268
1.b Fulgosio’s Consilium 273
2 The Defence of the Jews of Ferrara 278
11 Fulgosio’s Final Years in Padua 285
1 Succession Disputes: Canosa and Straubing/Holland 286
2 Fulgosio’s Death 288
3 Beccaria’s Death 295
12 Conclusions 300
1 Dissimulation and Identity 300
2 The Donation of Constantine 303
3 The History of the Council of Constance 304
4 University Teaching Practice 306
5 Legal History and Humanism 307
Appendices
1 The Last Will and Testament of Raffaele Fulgosio Padua,
11 September, 1427 317
2 The Last Will and Testament of Giovanina Fulgosio Padua,
1 September, 1437 324
3 The Inventory of Giovanina Fulgosio’s Possessions Padua,
July 1439 330
4 Data Table for Graphs 339
Bibliography 350
Index 382

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